It is common practice in lumber processing facilities such as sawmills to transport lumber over the top of sorter bins by overhead chain conveyors equipped with pusher lugs. Chain conveyors for the movement of lumber have links which each have an upstanding lug mounted thereon, spaced at intervals along the chain. Movement of the chain brings the lug into contact with the lumber, which is then urged in the direction of the running of the chain. When the lumber is located over a desired bin, a gate corresponding to that bin opens allowing the lumber to fall into that bin. Conventionally, a slider block is rigidly mounted to the chain where the pusher lugs attach to the chain to facilitate sliding translation of the lugs along the conveyor. Typically, fasteners attach the slider block to the chain, requiring that the chain links be pre-drilled where the slider blocks are to be fastened. Thus, the process of attaching the slider blocks to the chain is time consuming and costly.
It is consequently an object of the present invention to provide a slider block that requires no pre-drilling of the chain and no fasteners for mounting of the slider block onto the chain and pusher lug. It is a further object of the present invention to provide for the efficient installation and replacement of slider blocks.